The Five
by Thegoldensnitchmagic
Summary: Five siblings grow up in a world filled with suspcion, predejuice, hate and family betrayle, will they come out the same side together and when it really matters most will they stick together?
1. Prologue

_Prologue-_

When I look back at her life, I would have had to admit that she must have anticipated the outcome of Voldemort winning the war. We knew that glory and power was promised to those of pure blood. But if the Order won, she was told, it would be the end.

I am sure those of you against Voldemort would have been told something along those same lines, and it was true that Mudbloods had no place in Voldemort's world; on the other hand, blood purists had no place in the Order's world.

You must not scorn her for wanting and believing in this, as her corruption started early on—so early that she never knew it was happening, and it was only as she reached nineteen that it all became clear to her.

It was drummed into her head day and night that she was supreme, that they were the race above all races and they should be treated as such; they were told these things like a normal child was told not to steal and to say 'please' and 'thank you', and they never even knew what they were doing was wrong. I doubt that a lot of them will ever really believe that they _were_ wrong.

Try to understand this. Today we live in a new world, a new era, an era for freedom of speech, and finally, an uncorrupted Ministry, where if a child calls for help, they are helped, where if someone wants to run for Minister of Magic, then Merlin willing, they can. Now, cast your mind back to the First Wizarding War, where things were dark and things were very different. Even when Voldemort was vanquished, there was still no equality. How could someone spend their whole life believing in something that seemed so true, to then be told to change the very way they think and everything about them, or be gone?

The topic of childhood appeals to me, for in childhood you have those magical days when you are free from sin. Happiness generally follows. You all know the typical childhood, I'm sure, but what if I were to tell you about a very different childhood?

I have begun researching a specific family, and with help from bottled memories from the darkest of vaults and diaries written by murderous hands and letters written by Lord Voldemort himself, I have very slowly pieced together the lives of a family ridden with corruption. All these long and arduous years of research and knowledge have led me to beginning to compose my tale.

I am a successful writer and have mainly dappled in Muggle fantasy, which has also been popular among witches and wizards like you, but this is the first book I have written solely for witches and wizards. I do not have much to write about me, for this book is to do with one person, one being quite different from me.

Whichever way I begin to describe this character, I suppose I should start at the beginning, but as that would mean the beginning of the wizarding society as a whole and I cannot record her parentage that far back, I suppose I should start with her parents.

Imagine Hogwarts—or if you can't or have never been there, look at a photo, perhaps from the 60's. Yes, our story begins in the sixties, and where two very likely people meet. This Hogwarts was not much different from the one you would have seen before the war, with its talking portraits and moving staircases, and the ghosts and the students. Yes, the students: the kind but oh so slightly pathetic Hufflepuffs; the brave and foolishly impulsive Gryffindors; the bright but dull Ravenclaws; and finally, the Slytherins.

Two Slytherins in particular, a boy and girl, were not quite right. They never had been, but their insanity increased over time. Think of it like this: imagine all the wires and veins that link emotions and stories and thoughts and feelings together to create a human brain. Now imagine those wires becoming tangled and colliding together, so that one then sees the world not as it ought to be seen. I am not saying that these two students were brain dead, but they did see the alleged impurities of society. The wires that held together actions and told whether they were right or wrong had obviously ceased to exist, for these students were cable of many things, things that would drive any normal person ill with guilt.

They met and married. After all, the girl was a Black, and the boy, a Lestrange. The photo I hold now shows a moving image of the couple on their wedding day. The man seems distracted and rather unfocused; he seemed to hold no interest in what was around him and in the picture, he squints at me sometimes, as though to ask who I am. This is a question I ask myself once too often.

And the woman—she looks at me with profound anger and distaste, a look as though to say that she is disappointed in me. I can only look for so long without feeling sick and I end up shutting the dreaded thing in a drawer. The woman, I remember, had a mass of black curls and heavily lidded eyes; so distinct is her appearance that I would notice her anywhere, and so would many others. The images of the woman bring the name 'Bellatrix' into my head, a name meaning 'a female warrior', and that she is.

Now, my lovely reader, I throw you into the world of the Lestranges. I am the anchor that holds you from insanity. I will not often to be there to rescue you. After all, no one was there to rescue me. I had to swim out of the darkness after it was too late. Remember this, as I document memories: you may cry reading this, but really who comes to you when you cry? You are alone, just like I was, and just like Bellatrix really was all along.

Your truthful writer, Louisa Bradley, your small token of sanity.


	2. Chapter 1

_**Chapter one**_

_**1973**_

Bellatrix smiled to herself as she lounged on the silk couch in the drawing room. She rubbed her bump lovingly—lovingly, although Bella had never thought of feeling so happy about something so unrelated to the Dark Lord. Of course, she would choose the Dark Lord over her child any day, but having a child did not seem to promote the inconvenience she believed it would.

"Oh, Bella! This is so exciting!" said her giddy sixteen-year-old sister, Narcissa—Cissy for short. "Now, have you thought about velvet or silk for the drapes in the nursery? I personally think velvet, it keeps the heat in…although silk is good in the summer, keeps the room light and airy."

Bella swore her sister was getting more excited than her and it wasn't even Cissy's baby. She could only imagine what she would be like when she had her own. Still, a small decent part of her was glad her sister was happy, what with every family member disgracing them here and there. She need not mention any names.

"Oh, Cissy, you must know warming and cooling charms can be used if you're that worried," Bella said, rolling her eyes.

Cissy smiled. "Am I getting ahead of myself? It's just so perfect at the moment…"

"Yes, Rodolphus isn't as dull and dry as he usually is, and he actually knows I exist. that's probably because all the Healers have assured me it's going to be a boy."

Although Bella still barely tolerated Rodolphus at the best of times, he was happy that he now need not worry about the Lestrange line dying out. Of course, this did not occupy most of Bella's thoughts. Her last mission had been a great success, and, because of this and the ways things were going, the Dark Lord had not needed her so much. Although she was on the whole pleased, she still missed his presence and couldn't wait for the baby to be born so she could get back to what she did best.

"Well, Bella, you are getting pretty big. I'm sure that it is the excitement that keeps him happy…you know, I won't be surprised if the baby is born in the next few days," Cissy replied. Bella hoped so.

Cissy seemed to have a gift for predicting births, Bella thought while she held newborn Cepheus Rodolphus Lestrange. He was so small that Bella found it hard to believe that he would be a great fearsome Death Eater one day. He was so small, in fact, that he made Bella nervous around him, that if she used to much force, she may break him. Of course, Rodolphus gave not a second glance at the baby before strutting away to his study, leaving Bella to look after the screaming thing.

So far, Ceph (as she had taken to calling it) had not stopped screaming and she was quickly losing her patience. She was starting to regret the whole pregnancy altogether. Bella was quite sure, if Ceph had been a Muggle baby, she would have used the Cruciatus on it until it could be used no more. But she couldn't do that to her own child, could she?

Well…no one was preventing her…and the wails were getting more tiresome. No, she thought, her son was a Pureblood and would soon be a valued addition to the cause. She could not psychologically damage it. Sighing, she dumped it down in the cot and shut the door of the nursery.

And as Cepheus was left to cry, he learnt the most valued lesson of all: crying got you nowhere. If you wanted something badly, you had to go and grab it with two hands, and no matter how young you were, no one will listen to you and hug you when you cry.

_**1975**_

Two year old Ceph had just started to walk. It was the best thing for a two year old since warm milk. He could now literally take another step toward becoming independent. He need rely on Mother no more and now he could toddle along as he pleased. Ceph watched from the doorway of the great Malfoy ballroom the new dressed up man and wife. He knew the woman as his auntie Narcissa, though he couldn't quite say it yet. The man he did not know, though he looked almost as mean as Mother and Father and immediately, Ceph did not like him.

There were lots of others he did not know, though he could see Mother, drinking a lot of that red water that seemed to make her scary when she drank too much. He could also see Father across the other side of the ballroom, talking to men in cloaks.

"You!" said a baby like voice behind him. Ceph didn't like the sound of it and decided to carry on watching from his hiding place.

"You!" it said again. This time Ceph turned around and saw a sulky looking boy about his age. He was skinny and Ceph wondered whether he would fall over if he was pushed hard enough. Ceph took great delight and laughed as he pushed the boy over and watched his bottom lip tremble. This was much more fun than being nice to people.

"Go away," said Ceph. The boy had grown boring and his quiet crying was not stopping. Luckily, no one had noticed yet, as they were hiding in a doorway of a discreet side entrance

"Me pure," said the boy.

Ceph rolled his eyes. He supposed he should be nice to pure people, even though it was not much fun, and the boy seemed like someone he could actually play with, instead of boring adults.

"Friend?" asked the boy.

"My name's Ceph," said Ceph.

"Shay," said the boy. At this young age, they didn't quite understand the significance of last names.

"Me two," said Shay.

"Me two and a half. Me older," said Ceph, and of course that meant that Shay had to do whatever Ceph said, just like Ceph had to do what Mother said.

The conversation did not get any further as the ballroom had gone silent. Through the main doors entered an imposing figure, to whom all the adults bowed lower than Ceph and Shay were tall. Ceph felt he ought to bow down too, but he was still wobbly on his little legs and he had not mastered bowing yet.

"Bring in the Mudblood," commanded the imposing figure, once everyone had risen once again.

Two cloaked mean dragged in a bedraggled thing. Ceph was not sure of its gender, but what did it matter?

"Bella," called the figure, "why don't you show the Mudblood what they really deserve?"

Ceph's mother walked to what was laying on the ground.

"_Crucio_," she spat. What was lying on the floor screamed and screamed, until the screams became empty sounds and to Ceph, it seemed another world way from the celebrations of his auntie's wedding. Should he do something? Quite honestly, he was too scared and felt the whole thing was bigger than him. Shay behind him was covering his ears and squeezing his eyes shut.

Ceph stood transfixed; it was the epitome of power. Mother was laughing. Was it supposed to be funny? The other guests weren't laughing; some looked scared, some looked happy. Ceph felt like he was missing the joke.

"_Avada kedavra_," spat Ceph's mother.

And it was when silence fell that Ceph realized that the thing that had once wailed so much looked just like Mother and Father and Auntie and New Uncle. What was the difference? He supposed it was one of those things he would know when he was a grown up.

The figure left and the body was taken away by hooded men as the guests dispersed.

"Scared," whimpered Shay, finally opening his eyes.

Ceph didn't know how to describe the figure that had ordered this and had watched this happen, so he used the biggest word he could say. "Man powerful, me be powerful."


	3. Chapter 2

_Chapter two-_

1976-

Ceph was quite forgotten about this year and he did not like it one bit. His new sisters, Estella and Lacerta were only squealing pink things and did nothing at all. Ceph much preferred it when it was just him and preferred it even more just before they were born, when he finally managed to set a house elf alight through his first showing of magic and this made mother and father pay more attention to him. Since his sister have been born, he had tried to set alight other things, sometimes it didn't work and he was ignored and when it did, if it was a house elf, mother did not mind much but if it was curtains or a vase, Ceph would be smacked – the problem was he couldn't really control what and when he used magic.

Ceph was drawing his favourite thing, the dark mark, if mother was on a good mood, sometimes she would let Ceph sit on her lap and trace the snakes swirly pattern with his fingers and now he was going to attempt to draw it from memory, taking great care he started off with a black wax crayon.

At last when he had finished, he surveyed his work, it was alright, though it was a bit messy in places. He thought about asking mother to see it once more, so he could get the lines right, or better yet, he could have one of his own, except he would have to be a bit older, he ought to ask how old mother was, so then he knew how old he had to be.

Now bored with drawing Ceph picked up the drawing paper and took it to the nursery, the door was shut but was sure mother wouldn't mind him going in there. There were two cots laying side by side, with two babies both identical laying in them, recently father had told mother, the nursery was to small and quaint for his heir and refurbished a brand new room for Ceph. Ceph liked the snakes on the wall and bedposts but sometimes felt safer in the nursery.

He set himself on a grownup chair beside the cot "this is dark mark, mother had one and so does father and I will too, you won't, you are girls, only girl death eater is mother" he gabbled to them, he like the fact that he knew more about stuff than them.

One of them started crying, he thought it was probably Estella and then the other started crying too. "Be quiet, nobody listens to you when you cry, they don't come, so don't bother" he snapped at them, they only cried more.

The door was flung open and mother stood there "what are you doing?!" she hissed at Ceph.

"Showing sisters' dark mark" he said showing the picture he drew and feeling a little bit frightened.

Bella sighed; she couldn't really punish her son for trying to teach his younger siblings about the right way in life.

"Well out you go then" said mother carelessly "they're not going to shut up, so leave them to cry"

Ceph smirked a little; he told his sisters nobody cares if they cry, too bad if they weren't listening.

"Mother, how old is you?" asked Ceph, thinking back to earlier on.

"Twenty three, Ceph" she replied without softness in her voice.

"When Ceph twenty three, Ceph be death eater?" asked Ceph.

"Listen here" said mother pulling Ceph onto a nearby seat "if you are a death eater, father and I will be very proud, if you are not, we will be very disappointed in you and if you ever be friends with those of dirty blood, then you won't be our son anymore"

Ceph nodded vigorously, if he didn't belong to mother and father, then he wouldn't belong to anyone and to make mother proud was like making her happy and he liked it best when mother was happy and laughing.

1977-

Lacerta Druella Lestrange sat at her baby table and two chairs on the manors patio, set out carefully with a tea-set and her dolly, Rose, set out on the chair opposite her, along with an assortment of other toys. She was pretending she was at luncheon with pureblood ladies and drinking the finest tea and cucumber sandwiches.

She mocked pouring tea and sipping it from a tea cup, every now and again, she stopped her play acting and straitened her mint green dress, so the layers hung with delicacy. A little bored with playing luncheons, she grabbed rose and decided to see what her siblings were up to. Walking across the vast lawn, she toddled a little in her dress but made sure to look at the lovely spring flowers growing, she would have loved to be named after a flower she thought, but still her name was pretty enough.

She approached her sister, Estella, who this morning looked exactly like her, but now the mint dress was covered in mud and the ribbon in her hair was unravelling. Along with her sister were her elder brother, Ceph, and his two friends, Snyder Avery, but known as Shay and Darius Dolohov. All, much to Lacerta's disgust, were all covered in mud.

"What you doing?" asked Lacerta in a baby like voice, after all she was only two.

"Looking for spiders" Shay said.

"Not very nice" said Lacerta shaking her head.

"Better than dolls" said her sister.

"No" Lacerta shook her head, since when would some voluntarily climb through bushes to find yucky things, like spiders, dolls and flowers were much more lady-like and pretty.

"We're going to pull the legs off them" said Darius proudly.

"That's mean, why?" asked Lacerta, hugging Rose tightly to her chest and rubbing her nose on her silky hair.

"It's not mean, it's funny to watch them try and struggle and walk...sometimes they twitch" five year old Cepheus smiled broadly.

The conversation was halted when a house elf ushered them inside telling them to come inside and that Shay and Darius's mothers were there to pick them up.

1 hour later-

Ceph, Estella and Lacerta were around the Malfoys with news that their mother had gone into labour.

Lacerta was unsure about what it meant and sat in the corner of the Malfoys nursery hugging Rose.

Estella was thinking about what it would be like if all muggles were transformed into spiders and would rather stay home and have the whole house to run about in than just one room to sit still. She was vigorously scribbling on paper using lots of red and black.

Neither of the sisters spoke as Ceph was in a bad mood and both girls were secretly scared of their brother sometimes.

"The baby's going to be a boy" said Ceph sneeringly. He sighed at how his sisters didn't get what he was going for and so he tried again. "it means, they're going to forget about us, it will be worse than when you two were born because you two were girls and not important-" explained Ceph.

"Me important!" yelled Estella.

"Mother didn't think that" said Ceph dismissively. "Anyway we need to stick together"

"Yes" exclaimed Lacerta, surprising both siblings. "Nice things are given to baby, not us, we make baby look unwanted, and then we have nice things..." she explained.

"No nice to baby then?" said Estella looking at Ceph, while also looking quite happy.

"Yes, he's just going to ruin our family" said Ceph defiantly, he put his hand in the middle of the rough circle the three sibling were sitting in, realising that his sisters were too young to understand what he meant, he pulled their hands in the middle of the circle and said "we promise, to never let anyone ruin our family, including my new brother"

1980-

Running as fast as his little legs would carry him Aquarius Cygnus Lestrange, puffed and panted, his sides were starting to hurt and all he wanted to do was to sit down and cry, but then Ceph would shove him, or try and set him on fire all the lot quicker and anyway, when did anyone care if you cried? It had never done anybody any good in this house, he thought sadly.

His skinny frame carried him around the corner and then he sat down shaking.

"Got you!" snarled Ceph making him jump and start to cry, Ceph said it would be fun, but this wasn't fun, this made him scared, playing mudbloods and purebloods was not a nice game, Aquarius decided and he started to cry, small baby sobs.

"Only weak people cry" spat Estella cruelly.

"Weak people have to be punished" said Lacerta primly.

Sometimes, Aquarius thought if people acted the way they looked like, Lacerta would be the nicest of them all, Lacerta was pretty and practically perfect in image but as cruel as the rest in mind.

"No punishment" sobbed Aquarius, shaking his head rapidly.

"What should we do..." said Ceph pretending to think "I know! Let throw him down the stairs" Ceph gave one of his wide trademark grins, which was growing out of its childish cuteness and sometimes left him looking mad.

Light as he was, it took three of them to drag him to the nearest staircase with the amount of struggling that was going on.

"One...two...three-" THUMP! The force of the push made him fall in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the stairs, his elder siblings walked away, reacting the fall and laughing.

Aquarius knew he must be grateful, it's a lot worse, when Lacerta's friends Pricilla Parkinson and Santana Rosier are with them and it's even more worse when Ceph's friends Shay and Darius are around.

He laid there for about five minutes, until mother happened to come along, heavily pregnant once again. "You! What are you doing down there?" she shouted.

"tripped" he said snivelling.

Bella wasn't stupid, she knew the others picked on him, she just didn't really care all that much.

"Tut tut, try not to be clumsy" said mother to the three year old, with mock concern and stepped over him, her thoughts back onto the dark lord once more.

3 weeks later Iris Aquila Lestrange was born.

1981-

The year brought horror to those supporting the cause and for people like the Lestranges, who lived for the cause; it brought heart ache and least one of the children getting an extra beating here and there. Everybody was tense and most of all confused, where was their lord? Their saviour?

For the children in the lestrange family, it signified a lot of things, it gave an end to the 'golden years' the years of prosperity for the pure and now they were to give their rights ways to the impure, it signified that the Dark lord was not immortal and he could be defeated just like any other. For some, like Aquarius, it signified hope, which from here on out, things can get better.

All the children from the ring leader Ceph to baby Iris knew not to ever, ever, disturb mother in mourning for the disappearance.

The disappearance of you know who, was just the start of the disappearances, one by one, Death eaters or rather, former Death eaters, were rounded up and put on trials, most being found guilty and sent far away. Every new headline had something to do with you know who, Ceph, who could now read well, read the extracts to his younger siblings and the siblings in turn, would express outrage on the newest rumour of a baby, defeating a great wizard.

One day they sat on the Patio, Ceph now eight, Estella and Lacerta now six, Aquarius now four and Iris scrapping her second birthday reading about how Dariuse's father, Antonin Dolohov, was now dragged to Azkaban, with not so much as even a trial.

When mother, drifted, in a daze like state, to them. She looked gaunt and pasty, her skinny frame made her frail and her voice reedy and hollow.

"Hello darlings, anything thing good in the news?"

"Is there anything, I can get you mother?" Ceph asked.

"What do you think, Ceph? What do you think, I want!" she snarled.

"They only said he disappeared, he hasn't gone, gone." Said Estella reassuringly. Although the Lestrange family may fight ugly sometimes between themselves, whenever there was trouble, they always stuck together.

"I can't live without him, to never hear his voice, I think I may go insane...and that is why, I must find him!"

"Mother, won't you be caught, we were out with auntie the other day and we saw numerous posters for you and father and both our uncles and quiet a lot of people we knew...actually" Lacerta drifted off.

"What have I got to lose? I am his most faithful and I must...don't you see."

"What about us?" asked Aquarius, his innocence shinning on his face; thinking really that he ever stood a chance.

"Don't be stupid boy! The dark lord, will be about you, he will come back and create a better world for us, better than before – I must"

And so it was settled, the two parents left their children, with not so much as a good bye, and Aquarius now realised, when ever had he ever stood a chance of a mother's affection.

The news hit home first, Ceph took it the hardest, mainly for his mother, for he was never close to his father, he shut himself away from the world and became more violent.

Estella was next, picking on anyone she felt like, even her own sister sometimes, she felt the whole thing to be unjust, and why had those stupid aurors come.

Then Lacerta, who cried at night but kept a stony face at day.

Aquarius guiltily felt more relief than sadness, he preferred it living at the Malfoys and now maybe things would be different.

Little Iris cried for 'mama' sometimes but other than that she met the world with eyes of a dewy naiveness.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter three

It then hit the papers like all arrests, accept this one caused quite a stir, and as the children began to see, their parents were seen very differently in society now, where once their parents were feared and respected, now nobody ever wanted to admit to knowing them.

Ceph told them, those sorts of people who didn't go looking for the Dark lord and denied being a death eater, were those who were as worse as blood traitors.

Thus, the children took a wary approach with their new uncle and guardian who really paid less attention to them than their father did.

The day of the trial of their parents came; each wore an outfit that suited them best, much to Aunt Cissy's displeasure.

Ceph and Estella wore black robes, as if one was in mourning and were scarily similar to death eater robes.

Lacerta had chosen a dark green velvet dress and matching bow, she wore it proudly and vainly.

Aquarius, was becoming distastefully expressive in his attire and behaviour, and wore red and gold robes, advertising his Hogwarts house preference.

Little Iris, was dressed by Cissy in cream and pale pink, Cissy believing it would perhaps show a light of innocence on at least one of the children, however all of them were anything but.

She dressed her own son, Draco, in baby blue robes.

The ministry took to the children with all displeasure and the children themselves felt outnumbered and kept their heads down and stuck together, even Aquarius did this and he would have done anything to not be with who he was.

Iris and Draco were being carried by auntie and Iris desperately wished she could be put down, so she could toddle along with her siblings, mother never picked her up and she wasn't used to it, she also found her dress rather itchy and would much rather be in her nappy and baby vest.

Auntie walked into a big room, with lots of people, this scared Iris and she buried her face in auntie's soft silk robes.

"Lucious, take one of them please- I can't carry both!" Whispered auntie.

"Narcissa, you know it is not a man's place-"

"You do know Iris can walk on her own." Interrupted Estella, as they all stood waiting to be ushered to their seats.

"You will do well to mind you tongue!" warned her uncle.

Sighing auntie place them on the floor and tottering slightly, both Draco and Iris, both now two and half stood.

As now the family took their places, near the front of the audience seats.

Iris getting quite bored with all the talking looked at her cousin.

"Me bored, me explore!" exploring was Iris's favourite word.

"Mama? Dada?" asked Draco looking at the adults.

"Shhh, auntie and uncle won't know!" giggled Iris.

The toddlers toddled their way through the stands, till they reached the door that was propped open, to Draco it seemed entirely strange with no one to look out for him, for Iris, it felt a lot more like home to be on her own. Out into the polished corridor the two toddlers were tired and sat down on their bottoms.

"Don't like it" whimpered Draco, starting to cry.

Iris pouted, she hated it when Draco had to ruin the fun and go cry, sighing a little, she did what her elder brother always used to do when someone cried and gave him a hard push, hard enough to make him topple onto his back and cry even harder.

"Tut, tut, you shouldn't push people little girl" said a voice that was coming from behind Iris, Iris sniffed, who was this lady to tell her, what to do.

The lady was old, older than auntie and uncle even, she was reeling along a kind of pram, that you put babies in, Iris was glad she never had one – she never would have wanted to be seen as a baby.

"Baby" she said pointing at the pram.

The old lady's expression softened a bit and Iris was ashamed to admit, it had been the nicest look anyone had given her.

"this is my grandson, Neville" she said, looking fondly at Neville, she lifted both Iris and Draco up to see and to Iris surprise he looked the same age as them and was sleeping softly.

"Neville no mama?" asked little Draco, who could never live without a mother like his.

"His parents have gone away little boy" said the old lady sadly.

Iris felt comforted, that she wasn't the only one with gone away parents.

"My mama not here" said little Iris looking around the room, as if Bellatrix Lestrange herself may appear and hug her tight.

"Well where is your mama?" said the old lady, setting the two toddlers on the ground.

"Mama going away to prison" whispered Iris, tears threatening to fall, but she must not cry, no one ever listened to you when you cried, it was the first thing Ceph had told her.

It then dawned on the old lady, just who this little girl was, the hair and heavily lidded eyes, were now unmistakable. If the old lady, had not had a child of her own to care for and knew the heartache of losing a child, she would have left both toddlers where they were and ran.

The old lady, had quietly and quickly left, them in the care of the Malfoys, neither Malfoy was paying any attention to any of the lestrange children and were fussing over whimpering Draco, thought the old lady, the children themselves seemed a sorrowful bunch, they were skinny and gaunt looking and the elder three had a dull look in their eyes and smiled with mouths only, one of them, very daringly dressed in red and gold, had a radiant hope etched upon his features and the little one, had a look of fierce determination, the elder lady, gave one last glance and knew this was not the last she would see of them and with that she wheeled Neville to the stands, ready for the trial to begin.

The trial was not revolutionary; there were no real climaxes or no real shocks. It was quick and short, as nobody could deny, that the Lestranges were the cause of it and those who did not know they did what they done, would have not put it pass 'those sort of people' in the first place.

For the children however it was the biggest thing they had to face, to see their mother that was once their rock, their sole role model to be stripped bare, for the world to see their great parents caught and captured like animals in a cage, ready for the slaughter house. It was like their childish dreams of blood and installing fear into others, was taken away and it showed them, the power the other side still had. Never had each child been so singularly angry about one thing, all for quiet very different reasons.

Ceph's anger was directed to those Death eaters whom sat in the audience and nodded along with the loyal misdeeds, like they were the just.

Estella's anger was directed towards the opposing side and how so great witches and wizards could fall to a mundane Potter baby.

Lacerta's anger was directed at Bartimus crouch, that sat on a high stand, who literally and metaphorically leered down at all, judgemental and hypocritical, he looked at them like they were beneath the ground he walked his vicious boots upon.

Aquarius anger was directed, at his power loving freak of a mother, who looked so poor and helpless, yet so wicked and cruel and capable of such inhumanities, that her outside image a facade, like the love she had for them.

Iris was so angry at every one and yet not so sure why.

1984

The children never spoke of that incident ever again and what broke their make shift family apart, also brought the siblings further apart. The five children were mostly forgotten about in the Malfoy manor and spent their time thinking of a more prosperous era.

Ceph now coming to the important age of eleven, had devoured every dark arts book he had laid his hands upon and sat in corners, looking at others scornfully with his empty dull black eyes.

Estella, now eight, spent her time with Shay and Darius, when Ceph was reading; they picked upon younger children at the limited pureblood gatherings they went too and became bullies in their own right, when at home they picked upon Aquarius.

Lacerta spent her time learning the art of pureblood deception and etiquette, with Santana Rosier and Pricilla Parkinson.

And when Aquarius, whom was six, wasn't running from his bully of a brother and sister, locked himself away in one of the mannor's attic rooms and danced.

He remembered the day clearly when he found that he loved to dance, it was a dark time and he had just turned five, his uncle was in and out of ministry holding cells and Auntie distraught with the fact her husband may not come home this time. This left the Lestrange children to do as they pleased, deciding to hunt down Aquarius himself and do goodness knows what to him, they chased him every day.

It was at this point, he was near giving up all together and he knew he could run no further; it was then, with the will to pick himself up after hearing the approaching catcalls, he saw a little stairwell, small and discreet, and he was surprised to find it. It seemed to him, it was his own will to be rescued when he had no way out, that had found it for him. He climbed it, with a mixed sense of curiosity and relief.

The attic was so large and so scarily thrilling, that he revisited it to find himself drawing a map on an old bit of parchment as he went, with child like freedom exploring his way about.

It was a good couple of weeks before he found the room, he never knew he had been waiting for. It was further into the deep attic until he found it, the small room, like a glittering jewel in a labyrinth of mazes. There was a big mirror at one end and a shelf filled with books, along with a bar running all the way along the far side of the room and sat in a corner was a dusty trunk, in fact the whole room was coated with dust.

Opening the trunk, with a look of such naive wonder and care, that put most boys to shame, it revealed layers of pink chiffon tutus and silk leotards. Once he had laid them down upon the floor, careful not to rip the ancient and delicate fabric, at the bottom lay a line of ballet shoes – each lined in size order, going from small baby shoes, smaller than his little sister Irises feet to adult points, with silk ties. Gasping, he had never seen these sort of shoes, he was always told to wear big chunky boots and smart dinner shoes only. He then looked at the wall of books 'ballet dancers through history' one of them said, another 'a beginners guide to ballet' and then further up the shelf 'advanced ballet'. Looking at the, room which had been abandoned for years, he thought back to who had last been in here and how ballet was clearly their passion, and how the care put in, had now been put to waste, as dust was allowed to settle for years.

Shutting the door to the magical room, he sighed, had it been magic that he found a room, a place rather to escape, from who he represented and the long and the short of who he represented; he was the only other male Lestrange apart from Ceph and Ceph did not like that, he liked to win, he likes to grab things with two hands and take the power that was his and one day, thought Aquarius he would turn all the siblings against him and if powerful enough, mother and father too and eventually the lestrange family would devour him whole.

These sort of thoughts still occupied Aquarius today. He spent most of his days in the room, the day after he found the room (as he like to call it) he dusted and polished and cleaned until, the floor and mirror shined with perfection and then he slipped on a pair of shoes, grabbed the beginners guide to ballet and never looked back.

By now he danced all the time, when he was not with his private tutor, eating, sleeping or on the rare private outing with his siblings, he danced.

And now we come to Iris, the baby of the family. She was four and yet she already began to structure sentences in writing and spoke, with language far beyond her years and was vastly well read, for her age that was. Yes, little Iris devoured book or tried to at least, with utmost determination to do so. She also requested she play the piano, in which she spent time playing and playing scales, with her four-year old little fingers, till she got them perfect.

Now, if the Malfoys ever stopped to listen or even look, they would have realised that the lestrange children, nice or not, were in no doubt very talented children and if their mother and father had ever spared a thought on them, maybe the elder three, would not be sick ambition to please their parents and maybe the younger two would not feel so much neglect.

1985

Both Malfoys agreed that it was best for Ceph to be sent away to Dumstrang, by saying that both Malfoys agreed, was entirely incorrect, no, the correct saying was that Lucious demanded and Narcissa obeyed, but regardless to how the decision was made – Cepheus Rodolphus Lestrange would be going away, far away.

And my, wouldn't his parents be proud had thought Ceph, he wouldn't just attend and do well, no he would rule the institution and he would demand respect. He shouldn't have been thinking about this, especially at eleven, he should have been thinking about chocolate frog cards and quidditch, like most but since when did any of the children land in the broad group of most.

A few days before Cepheus was to be sent to Dumstrang, Cepheus and the twins sat outside, on one of the Manors large patio's in childishly animated discussion.

"I can't believe you are actually getting a wand!" exclaimed Lacerta.

"think of all the spells you will be able to do and if you think about it...you could even do one of the-" started Estella.

"One of the unforgivable's, I know" finished Ceph, though he was distracted.

"What are you doing here Iris?" asked Lacerta surprised, as iris never really said much, even though the elder three were never horrible to her.

Iris ignoring her sister stared at her brother with a calculating gaze for such a little girl.

"Do you think getting a wand would prove yourself to Mother and Father when they are free?" although Iris never said much, it was something worth noting when she did.

Although Ceph would never admit it, he was impressed as to how she could guess his thoughts exactly. He said nothing.

"You know it won't really, work." She said blatantly.

"What?" thundered Ceph, turning around, all to suddenly – the twins sent their warning looks. "Mother told me, personally, she would be very proud of me if I fought on her side." He spat at her.

Taking careful steps back, Iris continued only a little bit put off.

"Don't you see? Adults do it all the time, Aunt Cissy say's I'm the prettiest thing in the world, but it's all just lies – if it's anyone, it's Lacerta. The same with Mother, she expects you to do so when the time comes but she will never love, I don't think she is ever capable of something like that." She explained.

Angry and furious, Ceph slapped her across the face, knocking her to the ground.

Tears pricking her eyes, he sighed – he couldn't keep punishing her for her naivety.

"I know, you think cruel actions like that can silence me, they can't, I can still think and nobody can steal that away from me." Iris said trying not to sob.

Lacerta took a rare sense of pity on her.

"We would never hurt you, we just don't want you to lose your way, and we want you to become a good pureblood unlike Aquarius." Comforted Lacerta.

"Well, let's face it, Aquarius was never one of us to begin with, he was to different, he didn't have the Lestrange streak, but you have got the Lestrange streak, that's what makes you one of us." Added Estella.

Tearfully Iris nodded.

"Where's Aquarius these days anyway?" asked Ceph.

Walking over to where Ceph was standing. She replied "yes, I never see him now either, it's no fun playing without him"

Iris bit her bottom lip and kept quiet, she knew where he was of course and she was too good of a person to rat him out...yet.

Chapter three

When the Malfoys, along with the five Lestrange siblings returned from Diagon alley, Ceph brandished his wand and the children gathered to see.

"Well, at least it isn't like some of those pathetic wands that only mudbloods get." Estella remarked.

"They aren't very pretty, the short, bendy ones, that are as good as useless, this one however is-" said Lacerta

"Long, dark and excellent for dark magic" boasted Ceph proudly.

While the elder three examined the wand with wonder and the Malfoys doted upon their darling son, the two youngest children walked away up the stairs to the attic.

"The pirouette, it's my next challenge, Iris" said Aquarius to little Iris, who was sitting on the attic floor watching him practise.

"You're awfully good at ballet...you should go to a ballet school." Said Iris and she was right, Aquarius had a clear talent for ballet.

"Ballet School?" asked Aquarius.

"Well, Ceph is good at dark magic and he is going to Dumstrang, and you're good at ballet...so you should go to a ballet school, even if it is a muggle one." Explained Iris.

"You know auntie and uncle would never allow me, Ballet isn't for boys they would say...now for the pirouette..."

"Aquarius, what if you're sorted into Gryffindor?" Iris questioned.

"You do ask some funny questions, but I suppose I wouldn't mind it really – I think I would get on well there." Aquarius remarked.

"I wouldn't want you to be sorted in Gryffindor..."

Aquarius stopped what he was doing and sat down next to his little sister.

"Why's that Iris?"

"Because then the other won't allow me to talk to you, they already say you are a blood traitor"

"I haven't even tried to fit in with what they thought was right, Iris."

They sat in silence for a while.

"I don't blame them for calling you a blood traitor, I think Ceph wants to make Mother and Father proud more than anything and Lacerta and Estella go along with what he says, because they are scared – even I'm scared sometimes...sometimes I agree and stop fighting just so he doesn't hurt me..." she said licking her lips nervously "But, you're brave, you don't let Ceph tell you what to do."

Aquarius looked thoughtful for a second or two.

"you must be the most insightful four year old I have ever met, but I do get scared, I just learn to hide it, so they don't think they are winning and it seems to me, that even though Mother and Father are not here, it still seems as if they are telling us what to do. I think it will be better, when Ceph goes off to Dumstrang." Replied Aquarius.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter four

Once Ceph was away to Dumstrang, Aunt Cissy thought it best for Iris to get some friends of her own, rather than constantly playing with older children, she had already given up on Aquarius, whom did not get on well with any of the purebloods lads his age.

On a Tuesday afternoon, when Iris had no other studies or piano lessons, Aunt Cissy, acting as the excellent host she is, invited Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle to play with Draco , and Pricilla, who was already friends with Lacerta and her little sister Pansy Parkinson to play with Iris.

Pansy came dressed in a rather garishly frilled dress that was the colour of custard, Iris wrinkled her nose, she was glad that her green velvet was a lot more tasteful, though secretly, she was jealous of Pansy's straight hair, that was in contrast to Iris's messy curls, in which a bow was hastily tied in last minute by her Aunt Cissy.

Pansy gave a sickly sweet smile, which put Iris's fierce scowl to shame and with Aunt Cissy's encouragement they were told to play in the nursery.

"What are you wearing?" demanded Iris, once they got in the nursery.

"A dress" smiled Pansy.

"It looks horrible!" laughed Iris.

Pansy began to sniffle and started to cry, this made Iris feel rather awkward and remembering what Ceph once told her to do if someone cried and gave her a push.

"Stop crying, Ceph say's nobody comes when you cry!" she said fiercely, pushing her to the ground.

Just then Aquarius had heard crying coming from the nursery and poked his head around the door.

"Oh, Iris...did you make her cry?" asked Aquarius, looking at the four year old laying in a heap on the ground.

"She pushed m-me..." snivelled Pansy.

"Iris you can't do that to people, you have to say sorry." He said.

Iris sulked, who was he to tell her what to do! She could do what she liked couldn't she... she could always get Estella and her latest crony Alex Nott, to tell Aquarius to mind his own business, but that might make more trouble.

"Iris..." her brother said.

"Fine!" she said scowling and closing her eyes, she said it as quick as she could and then glared at Pansy, as if to say it was all her fault.

Her brother smiled at her and she was glad that she had made him smile, even though it was humiliating on her part to do so.

With that her brother reassured Pansy that Iris would not push her again and left the nursery.

Sighing at the frightened pansy, she tried to smile, though it came out as a grimace.

"Well, get up then, only babies cry!" she said helping pansy up.

"My name's Pansy, are we friends?" said Pansy rather desperately.

"I suppose so..."Iris replied.

"Do you have any dolls?" asked Pansy, as she absolutely loved dolls.

"Well, I did..." said Iris thoughtfully "but then I gave them to Estella for target practise, though my other sister has dolls." Iris said.

"Can we play with your sister's dolls then?" asked Pansy hopefully.

"Dolls are boring and any way if you want to be my friend, then you have to do what I say" pouted Iris.

"Okay then...what do you want to do instead?" asked Pansy unenthusiastically.

Iris thought for a moment.

"I know, let's play with Estella and Alex, they're in the garden" Iris thought this would be a lot more fun than playing dolls.

Alex and Estella were by a pond near the bottom of the mannor's main garden and in the distance Draco was taking great delight in having someone else to play quidditch with him on his new training broom.

On the patio they walked by Pricilla, Santana and Lacerta flicking through the latest copy of 'witch weekly' and each were gushing over the latest pureblood witch robes and drinking cool lemonade while doing so.

When they walked past Draco, Crabbe and Goyle, Iris took the chance to point out who they were.

"That's my cousin, uncle spoils him rotten, and He thinks he can get away with doing anything." Said Iris.

Pansy blushed a little as Draco waved to them; Iris rolled her eyes and glared at him.

Walking right to the end of the vast garden, where it was more overgrown, they found Estella and Alex squatting down by the pond.

"What are you doing?" asked Iris curiously.

"Well, we were looking for a frog but now we're going to go exploring" grinned Alex.

"Yes, so what do you want?" said Estella rudely.

"Pansy wants to play dolls, but I said dolls were boring...so we thought, we would see what you are up to" said Iris smiling.

Neither of the two children looked at Pansy.

"Well..." said Estella, pretending to think. "I suppose you can join us, as long as you don't cry." Sighed Estella.

"So... where are you exploring?" asked Iris chewing her bottom lip.

"Well-" began Alex.

"Let me explain, Alex" Estella cut in. "we are, at the moment right at the edge of the Malfoy garden and beyond that is woods." She sighed when both Iris and Pansy looked altogether quiet blank. "you know this, Iris...remember when Ceph told you that story about the muggles who wander from the fields to the woods and once they cross the boundaries, they get tortured...?"

Iris shivered and nodded, Pansy peered into the woods a couple of meters off, and quite fearfully she did this.

"So after the woods there are a few fields and after a few fields, there is a road that leads to the muggle village." Explained Estella.

"And after that?" questioned Iris.

"We don't know, so that's why..." Trailed off Nott, after a vicious glare from Estella.

"Anyway, as I was saying...we don't know, so that is why we are going to explore and find out." Estella looked triumphantly at the younger two.

"I don't want to go, I will get in trouble with Mr and Mrs Malfoy...a-all I w-wanted to do was play d-dolls..." Pansy sniffled, quiet frightened with it all and also, quite used to getting her own way.

"Too late little girl, you can't back down now!" sneered Alex and this time Estella did not try and stop him.

Quite confronted with what she should do, she timidly nodded and with a shove from Iris, the four children, two nine and the other two four and five, set off into the woods.

After a while of walking, Pansy began to grow weary and started to sniffle once again. Estella glared at Iris, as if to say that it was all her fault.

"Don't glare at me, Aunt Cissy invited her over and I was going to leave her...but then Aquarius said I had to say sorry for pushing her and then she wouldn't leave me alone." Iris grumbled.

"Aquarius always sticks his nose in; I should have a few words with him." Estella Muttered "I know!" she addressed the whole group. While Alex was thinking of nothing but the path ahead of him, Iris was thinking she sure she got her brother into trouble and Pansy was thinking she rather sit with her sister and watch the boys play quidditch, than trample through the dirt. "Let's tell a story while we walk, it will pass the time quicker." Estella demanded.

"Okay" brightened Iris. "There was a little orphan girl called Violet, and she had black curly hair..." Iris began.

"...She was called Violet, because she had the prettiest violet eyes..." said Pansy.

"...They weren't normal eyes though, none of the silly muggle carers had seen eyes like that before..." replied Iris.

"...That's because she was a witch..." supplied Alex.

"...the horrid, dirty muggle children bullied her because of this..." said Estella.

"...because that's what all muggles do, bully people..." replied Alex.

"...even though she was very sad, she knew she must have loving, pure parents out there..." said Pansy.

"...and she did, they were locked up, even though they had done nothing wrong, accept to stand up for what is right..." explained Iris.

"...and one day, a Powerful wizard came and set them free, he promised all the pure ones, they would have a better life and no longer would the unworthy pick on them..." smiled Estella.

"...so then-" Alex began.

"So then, the loving parents rescued Violet and killed all the muggles in the orphanage, the end." Finished Estella.

"That was a quick ending..." said Pansy.

"Do you have a problem with my ending?" Estella demanded, sticking her foot out, so that Pansy tripped and fell in the dirt, crying.

Groaning, Iris pulled her up and pansy wiped her hands on her dress.

"Look, the fields!" pointed Alex, as they approached the clearing and true enough they saw green fields.

"It looks a long way..." mumble Pansy.

"Well, why don't you just go back...unless you're scared..." teased iris cruelly, who had just about enough of Pansy's moaning.

"I don't care who's going where, all I know is that I'm going forward." Determinedly Estella said.

None of the four children said anything and all decided, that they had come this far, it was a shame to then walk all the way back and a waste too.

Climbing over the wooden fence, the girls ripping their dresses in several places, the Lestrange sisters, really not caring and Pansy looking dismally at the frills falling from her dress.

Once they had crossed about two fields, they sat, all together far too tired, too tired to go forward and too tired to go back. All of them secretly wished they never started and it seemed a silly idea now, though all of them were too proud to admit such a thing.

Alex staring of into the distance, looking casually vacant, then furrowed his brow in confusion.

"Look..." he said pointing to the edge of the vast field in which they sat. All of the children looked to where he was pointing and none of them had ever seen such a thing, it was like a metal box, with wheels and inside was muggles.

"What do you suppose it is?" asked Iris, unable to take her eyes of it.

"How should I know!" said Estella, all together quite put out with the knowledge she did not know.

"It's muggle" stated Pansy.

"As if we didn't know that." Replied Estella scathingly.

"You know what this means? We're close..." thought Alex aloud, once the muggle contraption had gone by.

With a bit more hope the children stood up and stretched their aching legs, with enthusiasm, they realised that they were closer to the road than expected and once they got there, their expressions changed from sulky scowls and snivels to triumphant and happy looks, they had made it.

The village itself was quaint and when one was accustomed to living in a manor as big as the Malfoys, most homes look small in comparison. There were a few muggles here and there and local shops were open, though not selling things that the children knew off. They spied a man talking into a smaller metal box and Iris thought the man to be quite mad.

"Estella?" asked Iris.

"What...?" Estella was too dazed to be her usual snappy self, it was as if they had walked into an alien place, and in which the children were quite apprehensive about.

"What do we do now?" Iris was beginning to wonder what the point of this adventure was.

Estella stopped for a moment, she wasn't sure, she didn't expect them to get this far, however as luck would have it, she spied a park, with swings (that she knew of) and other such things, they could always go to the park, could they not.

"Over there, there's a park." She replied quite affirmative.

The other children nodded numbly, for what else was there to do, so with determination on their young faces, they walked through the village taking care to stick together, for they only knew one another. The children received a few odd looks, for it was not every day, the quiet village of south Wiltshire, saw a young boy, who was quite gangly, wearing a kind of robe, that was well mudded and ripped, with a sneer etched upon his face. A young girl, with wild fly away hair and pale gaunt skin and a long old looking dress, that was embellished with mud along the hem and rips up the sleeves, an even younger girl, who almost matched the previous and wore an expression of snobbery and her in turn had an old dress, fresh with tares and stains of the outside. And finally a plain child, with an ancient mustardy dress, with unravelling frills and cheeks stained with tears.

At last they got to the park and sat down upon a spinning thing, which you could stop and go with your feet. Iris heard one of the children call it 'a round-something' the children saw concerned mothers, that never took their eyes of their children and gave them juice drinks and packets or something or other when they were hungry. So, this was what muggle mother's were like, for Estella and Iris especially, they found the whole thing far out of their comfort zone and what was more, when a child cried, the mother came running like nothing could ever stop them. This was not parenting, the two sisters thought, however was a child to learn to be strong and independent?

"I want to go on the swings" moaned Pansy.

"Alex, take her!" demanded Estella. Alex looked quite put out at this and sighed dutifully yet quite literally, dragging Pansy to the swings.

The girls sat there on the round something, steadily pushing it with their feet both locked in their own thoughts.

"Suppose, that's why muggles are useless, they're babied their entire life." Remarked Estella.

"I certainly wouldn't want to be one" the other replied.

Just then two muggle girls walked up to the Lestrange sisters, one with blonde pigtails and wearing a type of blue trouser, in which the children found, were quite popular amongst muggles and a pink jumper. The other, was quite an ugly thing, thought Estella distastefully, with bushy brown hair and buck teeth. they seemed to be about five and seven.

"Do you think we could play with you?" asked the bushy brown haired one.

Estella and Iris looked at one another formulating a plan.

"Well" Iris smiled "we're finished playing on here, so you can have it."

"Well, no we were wondering whether we could be-" The bushy brown haired girl began.

"Hermione...I don't really want to be friends with them, they look scary and are dressed weirdly" whispered the blonde.

"We were wondering whether you wanted to be friends with us and whether you might want to play with us." Said the bushy haired one, known as Hermione.

"Well we were going to exploring, if you want to come" said Estella, with fake sincerity.

"Where?" demanded the blonde.

Iris looked over to where the village of south Wiltshire ended at the edge of the park. "In the woods, over there" she replied.

"I don't think I can, I don't think my mummy will allow it..." said Hermione.

"Of course some aren't braving enough" Estella smiled, if anything, it was a little psychotic.

"I'll go" said the blonde determinedly.

"Alyssa, you can't!" exclaimed Hermione, Iris thought she was secretly a bit if a stick in the mud.

"I can and I will, to prove these to weirdoes, I am brave." Said Alyssa, although she was foolish, you had to remember she was only seven.

Hermione groaned and reluctantly nodded.

With both siblings smiling they, beckoning the two muggles to the woods.

"So, do you live here?" asked Hermione, trying her best to make friends, she always struggled to make friends.

"Yes we do, in that big manor near the village, do you?" asked Iris.

"My mummy and Daddy say that whoever lives there is rich and no we are on holiday, me and Alyssa's mummy's are friends."

Estella was steadily leading them through the woods, through the winding paths that were sure to get them lost, until eventually Estella made them stop and she and Iris sat down upon the floor. The sky was now starting to darken and they had been out a while now.

"So, I've proved myself..." said Alyssa whimpering a little, looking all around her.

"Can you take us back now" said Hermione rather frantically.

"I think not...it's much more fun to watch you panic" Estella smiled sadistically.

"Please!" pleaded Hermione starting to cry.

"Nobody is coming this time, when you cry" hissed Iris.

Both sisters stood up and Alyssa, her face shone in the darkened light of the moon, felt her legs shake; surely her mummy must be looking for her and in utter desperation, she pulled hard on Iris's curly hair and pulling out a clump of curly hair she begged "Help us!"

At the same time, Iris let out a shriek of pain and both sisters drew their eyes upon the blonde muggle girl.

"How DARE you touch my sister" hissed Estella in a voice not quite her own. Both sisters pushed the girl to the ground and she hit it with a thump, neither was quite aware of Hermione's pleas to top. The sisters fuelled with anger, felt a spark rise in them, and a type of power, entirely new to them, but so divine and sacred, they felt the need, the want to use it, all so suddenly.

How dare the muggle touch them and harm one of them thought the sisters and all so suddenly the words Mother, Father, Auntie and Uncle had told them all became true, muggles were weak, trash and should never walk the earth. With this fuelled emotion, the blond child lying on the ground began to twitch; she began to let out merely cries of pain and despair, she started to shake and the muggles hands felt entirely not her own, as they tried to clamp themselves around her neck, to kill the pain inside her. She jutted and jerked and coughed, when the pains took way her screams and blood rose up to her throat and poured down her chin and above stood her captures. Two young girls, each of the eyes showed black holes in the abyss of hell. Their mouths turned into upward smirks of satisfaction and not there be one inch remorse set about their features. Hermione's voice had gone horse from screaming and now she stood still with fear and her breathing became shallow and the last she saw before she would awaken again and convince herself this was all but real, was two girls, with jutting bones like pipes in a machine carrying blood and an animalistic hunger for the screams of last and final hope before all was gone and given in and with that Hermione fainted. Alyssa at last gave a last shake, as her goodbye to the world in which she was presented and it was as if the girls had been playing a game of chase and the Lestrange girls had been the victors and Alyssa gave a nod of acceptance, to the fact that she had been well and truly beaten and left them to play with someone else. And there she lay dead on the ground and no longer would the future reflect Alyssa's choices and emotions because the choice to follow the girls led her to have no choice at all.

Once the girls were feeling much more themselves, they surveyed the scene in front of them and the young held onto the elder, while she motioned to her lips the sound of silence.

"I recognise these woods, it looks like we've gone in a big circle, I think if we fetch Pansy and Alex, we will only have short way to go until we reach Malfoy manor." Said Estella at last.

Holding hands they did exactly that and walked as if in a dream like state, their faces eerily calm. When they arrived back at the manor they lied with perfection about a childish scenario of getting lost in the woods while playing tag, and childish it did seem after that. Alex and Pansy were oblivious to what went on and would probably always be, their parents were concerned enough and gave looks to the children that promised a beating. And in turn, once their friends had gone home, the girls also received a beating – for staying out late of course, whether they would have received more or less if they told the truth, it was never to be known, And whether they would have told the truth if it was Mother instead of Aunt Cissy, it would never been known also. But it was only when Iris sneaked into Estella's room after being put to bed, did the real talk begin.

All at once little Iris burst into tears, though she was not sure why.

"I- I have d-done something bad...and I-I promised Aquarius I w-would be g-g-good..." Iris snivelled.

Sighing, Estella picked up Iris and sat her on the large double bed.

"You didn't do anything wrong, that muggle thing was meant to be punished, she hurt you, so we in turn punished her." Explained Estella, although her voice was shaking a little.

"Then why do I feel guilty..." wondered Iris out loud.

"Because you're young and think about it like this, if mother saw what we did...do you think she would be disappointed?"

"No, of course not...she would be-"

"Very proud of us, she will see us as great Death eaters!"

"But Aquarius said that Death eaters are bad-"

"Listen Iris, you need to stop thinking about Aquarius, he has turned the wrong way and in turn, he will betray us" whispered Estella frantically as it was getting quite late and neither sister was in the mood to sleep.

Furrowing her brow for a while and looking at her hands, little Iris, although now five and yesterday feeling young and today feeling old. She looked up at her sister and realised that you had to be one of the other, she could no longer be friends with Aquarius if she ever expected to make Mother proud and she desperately wanted to, even though (and she would never tell the others this) she could not remember her Mother's face.

She nodded and made a silent promise, to not bully her brother but to treat him with behaviour that was stiff and cold and she would keep her brothers secret, for she wanted him to have a chance to choose, to dance or to kill. It was up to him. Just like she had chosen now, the chance to kill, but she would still dance and play, except to play with people's minds and to dance upon their graves.

When Estella saw the nod, her heart leapt, with relief, that no longer would she have to expect to play cat and mouse with her youngest sibling.

"Good, I am proud" nodded Estella. "From now on, you will hang around with me and Alex and we will teach all you need to know about the world." Grinned Estella sadistically.

"Now" Estella said chewing her lip a little. "What we did there was powerful magic and it seemed to be based on emotion, what I think we should do, is practise on simpler objects like spiders and such"

"Okay, all my life, I was told by you, Ceph and Lacerta that Mother was the greatest witch and I never knew her, if I saw her and chose to be a blood traitor, I would see her next on the battlefield, as my opponent." Spoke Iris

"You have a way with words, Iris...but back to the present topic, I find Ceph to be entirely correct with his views but entirely unfair with the way he treats his sisters."

"What do you mean?"

"Perhaps you are too young, to realize, but our brother walks around as if he is better than us but... if we practise what we did today, then we can prove him wrong and no longer do we take orders from him and to be seen as girls to be married off-"

"-but I thought Aunt Cissy said it was a woman's honour to be married."

"Hush. Don't interrupt, it is, but what our brother expects, is that we won't fight for the cause, we will let our husbands do so instead..." Estella's voice grew softer "But we will prove him wrong..." Watching Iris yawn, she looked down lovingly at her sister. Her brother Ceph never loved her and her own twin, whom she should have been close to, had chosen to be some silly wife instead of fighting for the cause she knew and loved. But, no, who would have ever thought Iris and her would be powerful and now they knew of their gift, to inflict pain upon others, without the use of a wand, they could begin to train and nobody will ever know until the time is right.

With that final thought, Estella Bellatrix Lestrange went to sleep.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter five

1987

Things had changed since then, as it should. Little Iris was now seven and came to find her new self as a calculating one, who was analytical in what she said, but still retained some of her five year old naivety and mannerism to most things, out of all the siblings, she resembled her mother most and had a rather un kept appearance that was with stark contrast to her sister Lacerta.

Draco was beginning to get more like his father and in turn he became the leader of sorts in his age group to all the other pureblood children.

Lacerta was eleven, and never did one see, one so appearance obsessed and with every dress she wore, she held a mask of carefulness and behind the glassy eyes, her thoughts were always ticking, for a way to exploit the world.

Her Sister in contrast, lurked about bullying anyone younger than her and she had formed her own gang and possessed the power her mother held. Both, Estella and Lacerta were now eleven and had received their letter for Hogwarts, which gave Estella much disgust, when she would not be attending Dumstrang and Lacerta equal disgust that she had to share a school with 'mudbloods and goodness knows what!'

Similarly Dumstrang shaped Cepheus into a rather different person altogether, gone were the childish naivety and were replaced with a dark maturity, Narcissa and Lucious were frequently adept in dealing with letters home of Ceph's sadistic nature.

And at last we come to Aquarius, quiet and rarely seen was he. When his only ally, Iris, had been taken under the wing of Estella and grew to become more like her, although, he thought to himself one day, she would never be as bad as Estella. He had taken time to stay far out of the manor and in fact, spent his days in the village of south Wiltshire.

It was one day, when he was about seven and he was sharing one of the delights of muggle ice cream from a local ice cream van, that he sat on the wall of the parish church, looking at the local notice board, not much really took to his eye; there were flower arranging classes, A congratulations on someone getting into a thing called oxford.

He nearly finished his ice cream, when he saw a flyer, it was small and faded, but however it was there, it did not quite disguise the title 'ballet lessons' picking it from the notice board, he realised that a lesson was only three pounds, he wasn't sure on muggle currency but he knew how to ask wizard money to be converted into muggle money at Greengots...no, he couldn't possible go...it was not the thing boys did...He shook his head, pinning the flyer back to the notice board...Then again, he thought, he didn't really care about Mother and Father and his mind reached back, to when he and Iris were friends. Iris had always said, he should have lessons in ballet. Why not, he thought, nodding and smiling he plucked the flyer from the notice board and went home, suppressing his secret all the way.

"1...2...3... and Aquarius, turn, step, turn" Called Mrs Pillory, the dance instructor.

Aquarius awoke from his daydream of when he found the flyer and preparing him in first position, nine year old Aquarius, danced the appropriate moves with natural grace and proudness, which was one of the only qualities in the black line, on his mother's side, he had inherited. And when he turned, carefully on the points he had just started to dance with, he felt a rush of exhilaration and the thrill of freedom.

"Good, now watch you're stance, you wobbled a little in the middle..." reminded Mrs Pillory.

Still fresh with excitement after trying out his newest move on points, he could only nod, still watching with only mild curiosity, he watched the other ballet dancers, perform their piece. All a few years older than him, as he found himself to be ahead of his age.

Eventually as the class ended, he packed up his things, keeping to himself as he was a quite child and did not really understand this thing called 'pop music' that the other muggles talked about, still this did not distract him from coming to ballet lessons, he found that he enjoyed them immensely and it was a way of escaping his growing fears of family expectations and relations.

He had converted a large sum of money the previous week and with that he used it to buy an ice cream from a local van. He had just come to realise that muggles and wizard-kind were not too different and in fact a lot of wizard technology were based on things that were once muggle. He sat down upon the same parish wall, where he had found the flyer and enjoyed the summer day licking his ice cream his thoughts were of nothing in particular...occasionally he thought back to when Ceph would be home or when finally it would be just him and Iris...or some new ballet move.

It wasn't long until he spied a small girl, a few years younger than him, she was sitting on the wall opposite him and she was crying. Aquarius peered closer, part of him not wanting to get involved and the other had an overwhelming sense of pity for the girl. She had bushy hair and rather larger front teeth. Sighing at his sensitive conscience, he finished of his ice cream and wondered over to the girl.

"Excuse me, are you alright?" he asked concerned, but then immediately thought it was a rather silly thing to say, of course she wasn't alright.

The girl gave a jump and looked up, she tried to smile at the elder boy but it came out as rather limp.

"Well, no, not really..." she said shaking her head.

"Oh, well, do you want to tell me?" he asked.

"I shouldn't really, you seemed so happy, I would hate to ruin you're good mood" she said.

"I would hate to see you cry."

"Well..." she began carefully. "Two years ago my friend Alyssa was mulled to death by a wolf or something, just over there in those woods, by that big house...you see, this is the first time I came back here to Wiltshire in two years and it brings back a lot of memories" said the girl getting tearful again.

"Where are your parents?" he asked.

"Oh, just round the corner getting some of the local fish from the fish shop."

Aquarius furrowed his brow, he had lived in Wiltshire most of his life and he had never come across wolves.

"You know..." he said thinking. "I lived here for most of my life and I have never seen a wolf here, anyway it must have come down from up north someplace, so what's your name?" he asked.

With the comment Aquarius saw Hermione tear up more, but she blinked away the tears and replied with "Hermione" and then "so you have live here most of your life, what about before?"

"I lived with my parents but their away now." He answered.

Nodding while they walked to a small patch of grass, they both sat down.

"So..." said Hermione "where do you live?"

"The big house over there..." said Aquarius pointing at the Malfoy manor in the distance.

All quite suddenly Hermione had a very unwelcome flash back.

"I can and I will, to prove these to weirdoes, I am brave." Said Alyssa, although she was foolish, you had to remember she was only seven.

Hermione groaned and reluctantly nodded.

With both siblings smiling they, beckoning the two muggles to the woods.

"So, do you live here?" asked Hermione, trying her best to make friends, she always struggled to make friends.

"Yes we do, in that big manor near the village, do you?" asked Iris.

"My mummy and Daddy say that whoever lives there is rich and no we are on holiday, me and Alyssa's mummy's are friends."

Estella was steadily leading them through the woods, through the winding paths that were sure to get them lost...

Shaking rather suddenly, Hermione got up.

"I have to go..." she said, her face turning pale.

"Hermione wait!" said Aquarius, his usual good natured expression very sad and very solemn.

"Your friend" he continued. "It wasn't wolves that killed her; it was something else wasn't it?"

Hermione said nothing.

Continuing, Aquarius said "listen, all I want you to know, is that I am not like them, Okay? I will never be as bad as them..." he was saying this more to himself than to Hermione.

"I told, my parents that it was a wolf, because I knew they wouldn't believe me and it made it seem all more plausible" she whispered looking down at her feet. Normally she was enthusiastic to make new friends, but after the incident two years back, she had not gotten used to trusting people again.

Aquarius took a deep breath, "Hermione, listen." He said looking at her squarely in the eyes."I just want you to say yes, or not even that, just nod...there were two girls in that woods..."

Hermione closed her eyes, willing herself to listen.

"...their names were Estella and Iris" he finished and Hermione nodded, in her memory stirred the awakening of nightmarish memories.

"What I want to know" said Aquarius breaking her train of thought. "how did they do it..."

"What were they to you?" asked Hermione.

"They are my sisters and still are, regardless what I think of them." He said sadly.

Hermione sat down beside him again, she had blocked the scene out for two years and now it was time to revisit it once again.

"Your sisters stood over my friend in the woods over there" she said pointing to the woods. "I asked to play with them and A-Alyssa didn't want t-to, but we followed them into the forest...I mean they were only children, what could they do to us...and then they sort of stood over Alyssa and looked d-down at her...then she started to twitch and she sort of looked like she was h-having a fit" Hermione had to stop because the overwhelming emotion to cry was becoming all too much.

Both were silent and in the distance Hermione saw her parents coming out of the fish shop. "I have...have to go..." she walked, no ran away, hopping she would never come into contact with any of the children that lived in the manor.

Silence followed Aquarius, pure silence, he knew his siblings were bad, but this bad? And little Iris, capable of something like this? All of the sudden the bright sunny day became a whole lot darker.

just plain favouritism" hissed Ceph, whom was furiously staring at nothing, with a mixture of hatred and aggression.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter six

16th July 1987

"I wish I was going to Hogwarts..." said Iris looking rather sulky.

"Why? I would much rather go to Dumstrang, where you get to learn real magic" exclaimed Estella.

"Yes, but once you and Lacerta go off to Hogwarts and then Aquarius goes, it will be only me and Draco isn't very fun" replied Iris in a matter of fact tone.

The Lestrange siblings were in Madame Malkins; robes for all occasions, placed on the Edge of Diagon alley, where the two twins were getting measured for their Hogwarts robes.

"Green silk, I think" demanded Lacerta to the young assistant whom was measuring her.

"How will you know you will be placed in slytherine?" inquired Aquarius. He held his head high when saying this, but despite his outward confidence, there was the slight inclination, to not look Ceph, Estella and Iris straight in the eye.

Lacerta let out a chilling laugh, a sort of laugh that was made for mockery. "Where else will I be placed?" Lacerta laughed. Aquarius decided not to comment and when thought about it in further detail, slytherine was the only house for her.

"I don't know why uncle can't take us to knock turn alley, instead of that wimpy cousin of ours, it's just plain favouritism" hissed Ceph, whom was furiously staring at nothing, with a mixture of hatred and aggression.

Estella took a glance at Narcissa who had stepped outside to talk to some old school friend and then ensured that the young assistant had exited out of the large dressing room before speaking.

"If Mother and Father were here, they would take us to knock turn alley..." Estella smiled at the thought.

"If Mother and Father were here things would be a lot better." Remarked Iris, quite sadly and her voice rang with desperate yearning to know more about someone called 'Mother' and 'Father'

Ceph, striking the other siblings with some sort of bafflement, smiled at Iris, obviously it was not a normal smile by any means and it rather put Iris off.

"But it won't be long until we see them again..." he said.

Feeling rather uncomfortable with Ceph's smile, iris, now six, left the store, mentioning that she was looking at owls at Eyelops Owl emporium. The others did not take much notice and continued with their haughty ungrateful personalities.

Out in the main street, there were bustling witches and wizards of every shape, size and colour. Iris also noted that there was one of the Hogwarts professors (she couldn't remember what one- not that she cared anyway) showing the Mudbloods, the world in which they would 'belong' to. Iris made note, to try and trip a couple up, despite them being nearly a head taller than her. As Iris walked and thought, she was glad that Aunt Cissy had not seen her and demanded she stay. She looked up to her elder brother and aspired to be like him, except sometimes he found the most frightening things funny, contemplating more, she then concluded that she did actually find most of the things Ceph found funny, funny also – like Dobby getting beaten, or A pigeon falling to its death after being shot out of the sky with a jet of magic from Ceph's wand.

Her thoughts then turned to something that caught her eye. Amidst the hustle and bustle of Diagon alley, there stood on the corner of the street a small red headed girl. She was little and looked about four, she was crying – this appeared distasteful for Iris as she was always scolded by her siblings (apart from Aquarius) for doing such a thing. Iris approached the girl.

"Why are you crying? You know only babies cry!" Iris said rudely.

Snivelling a little, the red headed looked up at Iris in slight awe and fear, she looked a little ashamed at how pitiful she must seem to the elder girl, was obviously very rich, with the silk robes she wore and to prove this point further, the red headed girl, looked down at her tatty dress, it was a little small for her as Mother couldn't afford many cloths, what with the elder brothers and all.

"I'm just not very happy" Snivelled the girl.

"Well, I'm not very happy most of the time; do you see me crying about it?" Iris snapped.

"I just can't find my parent that's all..."the girls snivelled.

"What can't even deal with being out and about alone and you cry? Shows how much of a baby you are!" Iris said laughing and pushing the girl on the floor, making her cry even harder.

"Oi, what are you doing to my sister you bully!" came a voice behind her. Turning around, she saw a red headed boy that was just slightly taller than her and was wearing similarly second hand clothes glaring at her.

"Oh, is this your sister? Let me guess..." said Iris pretending to think. "You both have red hair and cheap nasty clothing, I bet you're the Weasleys, I'm Iris Lestrange" she added spitefully.

"Come on Ginny, you don't want to be seen with someone like her" said the boy picking his sister off up the ground.

"Someone like what!?" Hissed Iris stalking closer to the boy and girl.

"Someone whose parents are the lowest of the low." He replied

And as soon as the words left the boy's mouth, who was called Ron Weasley, there was nothing the passer's by could do to stop what would happen next.

With a glare that made Ginny whimper, she lunged herself at Ron, knocking him to the ground and throwing punches and Kicks here and there, Ron tried to fight back but the amount of pent up anger in Iris's mind was no match for Ron's retaliation. She was yelling and a crowd of children had started to gather.

Coming out of Madame Malkins, the Lestrange siblings were all in moods of varying degrees of boredom, Estella was borderline suicidal with dreariness whereas Lacerta was not nearly as bored. It was then when the siblings and Aunt Cissy had noticed a crowed of children and now approaching adults. The children ran ahead and as they got closer they could hear the noise.

"HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT ABOUT MY MOTHER YOU FILTHY BLOODTRAITOR!" was the sound of their sister voice they heard,

"AHHH! Stop!" came a whimpering voice.

Just then two red headed twins came in to rescue their brother and in retaliation Estella and Ceph pushed through the crowds and through themselves into the fray.

With shouts and yells and kicks, the adults tried to pull apart one fight but only then would another commence.

Eventually it came down to the appearance of Mr Weasley, demanding his children to part from the Lestranges and Mr Malfoy to calmly tell the three siblings to stop what they were doing and that they were all going home, and behind the grey eyes of Mr Malfoy, lay punishments not even Ceph would want to think about.

As quick as the fight came, as quick as it was gone. The crowd of jeering children left satisfied with the entertainment they received and both families fixed each other with icy stares, it was safe to say this fight would never be forgotten by anyone who was a regular visitor to Diagon alley.

When it came to the root of the fight, Mr Malfoys punishment was not a harsh as intended.

"Were it be a different world children, this would have been sport, except there would be magic involved and the blood traitors dead" He told them pompously.

The three siblings ginned in mutual agreement, that it was definitely what blood traitors like them deserved.

Lucious was no fool, he knew the children knew more than they should, and in fact the three before had shown obvious signs of an early mental disorder of sadistic nature. But what was he to do? They were not his children and so, in turn not his problem.

"However right you may have been and however well of you to defend your blood, it will not excuse you from loud and rash actions! If you wanted to get your own back, brash behaviour is not the way of Slytherines but Gryffindors."

Ceph, Estella and Iris were ashamed that they were not more slytherine like in their actions, but like all slytherines in mind, they always liked to think they got the best of the situation, they had ultimately shown, the Lestranges were not someone you would mess with.

After, in what Lucious's opinion, a healthy dose of the cruciatus curse, they were sent to bed without supper.

Both elder siblings commended Iris on her path to rightness. Iris was happy from her first fight but was a little sad, no make that a lot, sitting at her desk she pulled out a book and quill and started to right.

Dear Diary,

For someone who is only six, I find myself to be quite mature. A few things have led me to find this. For one thing, I clearly have away in the words I write as you will find further on in this book. I am also mature enough to deal with the disturbances in the mind my brother has, he never looks right, there is always some inhuman glint in his eyes, it scares me but inspires me, I plan to be like him when I am older. Finally I am mature or perhaps stronger is the word I am looking for to hold myself in a fight. Today some filthy blood traitors spouted nonsense about darling Mother. I love Mother, perhaps I shouldn't say love...I aspire to be her. I have never met her though. Anyway these blood traitors got what they should have got when they were babies, that way they would have been too weak to fight back and probably died. They didn't die though – but they will next time.

It's going to be lonely here without Ceph, Estella and Lacerta – except Lacerta's doesn't count because she's boring. I will only have Aquarius and we don't talk much, so I will be alone and that makes me scared, I don't ever want to be alone.

Love Iris.

With the short paragraph written in careful print, she closed her eyes as she fell asleep in her four poster bed, dreaming of the fears of being alone, sometimes in dreams such as these she was in a cold cell – she supposed it was an Azkaban sell other times she was in a dark alley with nothing but groping hands and rarely she dreamed about her sitting at a desk in a room in a modest house doing an everyday activity such as reading letters addressed to someone called Louisa Bradley. But once she awoke, she wouldn't remember these dreams for a long time.

As further punishment she was not allowed to see her twin sisters of to Hogwarts and had to stay in the manor.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter seven

1989

On a very ordinary day, July the 5th to be exact, Aquarius had received his Hogwarts letter and much had changed in the two years since the twins had received theirs. Aquarius was getting on more than well in ballet and his ballet teacher had once mentioned he should apply for the Royal Ballet School. Of course he couldn't but it was nice to know his ballet teacher knew of his capability. He was now a less gaunt, bruised skinny child and without the fear of his elder siblings he had a lightened face and had grown a good deal taller. Aquarius had tried to convince Iris that it was better when it was just the two of them, however Iris did not see it that way, while Aquarius grew healthier, and Iris's health went in the opposite direction. She became more withdrawn and her appearance became more unkempt, her hair, probably her most notable feature, was a wild mass of curls and gave her a disorganised look. She had grown taller, but her face had become narrower, losing the innocent roundness to her cheeks.

Aquarius was not a demanding child, so he did not rush to make his guardians take him to Diagon alley and in fact since the incident two years back, rarely did they go. It was in times like this when he thought about his younger sister. She was wild and out of control, she was a joker in a pack of cards. Sometimes you would not know what she would do next, one day she would wake up and decide to spend the whole day in the woods with dead animals at her feet for no apparent reason and other days she would spend curled up in the library with pages ripped from books, she would sometimes collage them together and create cryptic messages and other days she would bang on the piano until the keys were broken. The Malfoys did not question this as they did not care for her and rather felt the problem should be given to Bellatrix when she escaped.

Sometimes Aquarius saw her as the five year old she was before she went downhill (in his opinion) and then in darker thoughts he proclaimed he would always see her as the lost five year old too frightened to cry.

In a way they were all with their very own fears.

The little boy Ceph, had long since deserted what remained and the figure now was nothing from the lightest of his days and what remained was a teenager that held the brutality of a brutal man. He was uncaring and fuelled with anger.

The prim and proper Lacerta blocked the world out, she tided all the things that made up the kindest person into a small undisturbed part of the brain and what she unleashed was a girl quite devoid of laughter and emotion.

The determined Estella grew more determined and became a destruction upon her former self, she was curious but no more curious than she was allowed to be, but day by day, bit by bit, she lost fragments of her humanity, parts of her soul and while her soul was still whole, it was as if it was broken into a million pieces.

Of course this is what they become eventually, with the sick devotion that fuelled them, with the instincts of a mindless slave they devolved into nothing more than walking dolls.

However this is what they end up to be like, this is what you would see in any of the history books and ask any historian they would say that and nothing more.

Of course they were much more than that and did they laugh? Smile? Love even? I don't know.

Of course, Iris had profound respect for all of her siblings and deep inside of her she reserved a special part of her for her brother, Aquarius. She knew Aquarius was different; she just didn't want Aquarius to get hurt, from Mother, Father, Cepheus, Estella and even herself.

Aquarius himself was wary of Iris and became more wary after the incident in the garden. I would tell you about the day itself.

You see a day is a chance to do something new, maybe change. Each day is a new beginning and a new chance to take. Aquarius knew he didn't have long before he would be off to Hogwarts and with a new outlook for a new day, he stamped down his fears and went to find his sister in the manor Gardens, except, all days hold reminiscence from the day before.

The incident with the muggle girl had stayed with Aquarius, picking at his conscience and after much deliberation, how he could believe a nameless muggle over his sweet and kind sister, true he had to repeat this sentence a few times for it to sink in, but once it had, nothing would convince his sister was a murderer.

Iris Kneeled at the very boarder of the Malfoy property staring at something on the ground and it was only as Aquarius got closer, he saw a fox, it was small and skinny and it twitched every once in a while, the feeble and instable body not able to do much.

At first the boy could do not much else but just stare and he could not forge his brain to draw together conclusions. It was then when he realised it was his sister, she was doing it all. It was then when the realization hit him- his sister needed help.

"STOP!" he ran at the nine year old girl. "Iris, stop it, this isn't you..."

The dazed look that she held on her features had left her and she shook her head and started to sob. "H-how can something so beautiful, create something so disastrous..." she sobbed.

Hugging her tight, Aquarius buried his face in her curls, what did it matter if she was different, at least she felt remorse, little Iris will always be his little sister.

"it's okay, you must never do that again, despite what anyone tells you to do, you're your own person and don't ever let anyone try to bend you" licking his lips and breathing rapidly, he continued "you must never give in, once you do, it's all over...I love you Iris and I can't lose you this way" said her brother.

She nodded numbly and so the two siblings sat and both wept, trapped in their own special memories of the beloved Malfoy attic and how they clung to each other in the cruel world they were thrust into.

But just like everybody else she loved, her brother left her, left her for Hogwarts.

Dear Diary,

So he has left me. Why should I even care, everyone I know and love has done the same – except he was different, he loved and understood what it is to be someone not like us. Personally I can't wait to go where he is going – Hogwarts. I am writing to you more and more as the days pass by, I can feel no other connection to anyone else in this manor, not even the attic. Of course the ballet clothes and the shoes and the bar and mirrors stay there but with no one to tend to it, it grows dusty again. It doesn't seem magical without my brother – of course he still dances and sometimes I wonder if I am not the only one who knows, I see my siblings during holidays sneer at him, mind you they have always been like that to him. Of course I have Draco and I suppose Pansy, is what you would call a friend... still, I ought not to worry about being abandoned, for it won't be long till I am with my siblings and we will be together once more, my brother and I...

Stopping what she was doing, she looked at the window to where a black eagle was waiting for her – Aquarius's eagle. Taking the letter the eagle was carrying, she opened it to reveal the following:

Iris,

This will be short and only for you. I have not made slytherine – I don't care what the others think of me, but I care about you, don't see me as a traitor, an enemy and I will never abandon you. I have been sorted into Gryffindor and I have friends, Fred and George. I am happy. You would love it here sister, you would love the potions we make, personally I can't wait to take care of magical creatures.

I have already played a few pranks myself, especially on Percy – Fred and George's brother. I have spoken to them about you – I have said you are mostly quiet, they don't believe me, after what happened in Diagon alley they say their brother Ron will be in your year, I hope you become friends.

Much love, Aquarius.

Picking up her quill, she began to write again.

...I was wrong, he has abandoned me, but I will not abandon him yet, although we may not be together in Hogwarts, he is still my brother. I come to think about my gift, my beautiful and tragic gift, to have the ability to inflict pain upon others, with only mere thought. I have discontinued practising it so. I want to get better; I don't want to be like Ceph and Estella – and giving up the gift me and my sister have is the only way...

At the window came another eagle, this one grey and gaze piercing and carrying two letters in its beak. Setting down her quill, Iris collected the letters.

Iris,

Don't let that blood traitor influence you, I have been told the company he chooses – I want you not to listen to him and I want you to keep to the right path, we Lestranges are strong and we will be strong, you are a good child and have always chosen the better path, do not feel that your loyalties should change – think how disappointed Mother and Father will be.

Cepheus.

Iris began to write once more,

...But to get better, I will disappoint Mother and Father, all my life, I have wanted to make them happy but I have come to realise, I can't even remember what my Mother is like, the sound of her voice, the way she wears her hair, her smile and laugh, are all attributes I forget. I have two courses of action to take – I can play neutral for a while, then fight for freedom with my brother or I can tell auntie and uncle the news and play the snake. Each with their advantages and disadvantages each will lead to a path, a path I don't know, but a path I must take...

Opening the other letter, she read on.

Iris,

Practise your gift and work hard, tell but no one of what we can do, only must the dark lord be the first to know. Follow me and Ceph, but remember, Ceph is dangerous, he will use us and so we must become allies. As for our other brother, he is not worthy of that title and should be disowned. I beg you not to interact with him no more.

Estella.

Writing for the last time in this period, Iris begins to transpire what she will do.

...I have made up my mind, the path of my mother I will take, of course I plan to stay neutral for as long as I can, to stop arising suspicions. But now the path is taken, to destruction or power, I have made my grave or throne and I shall reside upon it, till the power of time prevails.

Pinning the letters to the diary page, she began to reply to the letters received.


End file.
